DETERMINE RISKS OF CROSSING

For people who are unable to see or hear the traffic, assistance is needed to observe / evaluate the situation. The assistant / instructor can convey the movement of vehicles and pedestrians either by pointing to them as they move (with the deaf-blind person’s hand on the pointing hand, conveying the speed as well as movement) or develop a system, such as drawing the movement and position on the back.

Risks exist as follows:

· At Signal: risks from: parallel traffic turning right and left; perpendicular traffic turning right-on-red or running the red light

· At Two-way Stop Sign (crossing the street with the stop sign): risks from parallel turning traffic; perpendicular traffic approaching or waiting at stop sign; and traffic at the stop sign across the street.

· At Four-way Stop Sign: risks from stopped cars that surge forward and cross your path from any direction; if intending to cross when no traffic is present, there are risks from idling vehicles that you can’t hear or see.

· At Uncontrolled Crossing including

n at Two-way Stop Sign, crossing the street with no stop sign

n at Separate Right-turn Lanes (where an island or marking separates right-turning lane from the street, and drivers yield to perpendicular traffic);

n at Roundabouts:

· if intending to cross during a gap in traffic at places where you ARE able to reliably hear/see all traffic far enough to know when there is a sufficient gap to cross, there is negligible risk;

· if intending to cross at places where you are NOT able to hear/see traffic far enough, there is risk that as you start to cross, undetected vehicles are approaching that can reach you during the crossing (consumers should be able to assess if this is one of those situations -- the ability to assess whether they can hear/see traffic well enough can be developed using the Procedure to Develop Judgment of the Detection of Traffic);

· if intending to rely on drivers to see and avoid you, there are risks that drivers will fail to stop or yield.

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